My name is Sarah Fathallah, pronounced sārah fatḥ allāh, and originally written as ⵚⴰⵕⴰ ⴼⵜⵃⵍⵍⴰⵀ and سارة فتح الله.
I am a designer who specializes in applying participatory and trauma-responsive design approaches to the social sector. I have worked in over 30 countries on projects aiming to advance issues such as reproductive justice, labor rights, and housing justice. I also serve as design faculty at the California College of the Arts and UC Berkeley.
As a candidate in the MSt in AI Ethics and Society at the University of Cambridge, I am studying the surveillant and carceral logics of artificial intelligence systems and their impacts on colonial subjects, migrants, dissenters, and racialized communities.
Outside of my formal work and studies, I am actively engaged in anti-surveillance, abolitionist, and anti-imperialist community organizing and campaigning.
Born and raised in Morocco, I now live in Oakland, California, which sits in the territory of xučyun (Huchiun) of the Lisjan Ohlone people.
About
Accolades
My work has been recognized by the Core77 Design Awards, the International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA), ONE Prize, iF Social Impact Prize, and the GSMA mWomen Design Challenge.
My article for the Stanford Social Innovation Review was its top story of 2023.
I served as a juror for the 2022 IxDA Interaction Awards and the 2021 Core77 Design Awards.
I was selected to be a part of User Interviews’ 2022 Yearbook recognizing essential voices in user research and design.
My Twitter account was named as one of the 20 UX and Digital Design Twitter Accounts to Follow in 2022.
I was named by the UX Design Institute as one of 2021’s UX leaders who are making a difference in the world.
I was invited to take over the World Design Organization’s Instagram as part of their PepTalk series in March 2021.
I was listed as one of the 2019 Women of Design by IxDA San Francisco.
Media Features
I was interviewed as part of the following articles and features:
“Design for Good: Tackling Social Issues,” UX Design Institute, 2021
“Every Space is Political,” People Nerds, 2020
“Alumni Spotlight: Sarah Fathallah,” SUGAR Network, 2020
“Designing for Social Impact,” Communication Arts Magazine, 2019
“Interview with Sarah Fathallah,” AIGA EMERGE, 2018
“The New Movement Recruiting Designers for Social Good,” Coding It Forward, 2017
“Témoignages d'alumni ME310 Paris : Sarah Fathallah,” Paris Est d.school, 2015
"Interview with our Design Challenge Grand Prize winner, "GSMA, 2013
"Sahel Shakes Up Mobile Design," in SmartChimps, 2013
My work received the following media coverage:
“The State Took Children From Their Parents — Then Failed to Give Them a ‘Real’ Education,” NBC News, 2022
“Placing More Foster Kids in Institutional Settings Is Not an Acceptable Solution,” The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 2022
“We Need to Train Child Welfare Workers to Help Heal Trauma from Foster Care,” The Imprint, 2022
“Five Myths About the Child Welfare System,” The Washington Post, 2022
“The Child Welfare System Already Hurts Trans Kids. Texas Made it a Nightmare.” The Washington Post, 2022
“I Will Never Forget That I Could Have Lived With People Who Loved Me,” The New York Times, 2021
“Diversifying the Police Force Won’t End Police Violence,” Truthout, 2021
“New Study Suggests Ending Group Care for Foster Youth,” The Imprint, 2021
“فعالية هي مصممة في منصة زين للابداع,” Al Ordon Alyoom, 2018
“Local innovation lab to develop solutions to refugee crises,” The Jordan Times, 2017
I was invited on the following podcasts:
“Away From Home - Sharing the Impacts of Institutional Care,” Child Welfare Information Gateway Podcast Series, 2022 [Transcript]
“Trauma-Informed Design + Participatory Design Perils + Research with Vulnerable Populations,” Design Thinking 101 Podcast, 2021
“Posters for the People,” Dignidad Rebelde, 2021
“Design Research,” Design Thinking Roundtable Podcast, 2020
“Design for Good,” Designer & Designer Podcast, 2020
Country Work Experience
I have had professional engagements in the following countries: Australia, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Guinea, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Italy, Jamaica, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, the Netherlands, Niger, Nigeria, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Spain, Sweden, Türkiye, and the United States.
⬤ Countries where I’ve lived
⬤ Countries where I’ve worked
⬤ Countries that I’ve visited